This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

But let’s reconsider Rielly’s comments. The hockey gods must be Leafs fans. Because if hockey is a religion, then what is a religion without suffering? And who, in hockey, suffers more than Leafs fans?

Article Continued Below

Leaf fans most recently suffered through the Muskoka Five, a group of veterans led by their captain who believed — wrongly but strongly — the team was better than it was. So much so, they repeatedly refused to allow themselves to be traded, denying management the chance to start a rebuilding project sooner. Instead they chose to try to make the playoffs, and instead got repeated early starts on summer, and a nickname for the ages.

Now Leaf fans suffer through the Confounding Four, a group of players supposedly reaching their prime, but certainly not reaching their potential. Led by their captain as well, they too believe the team is better than its record indicates.

Take the leader, Dion Phaneuf. He’s had a legion of detractors since he arrived in Toronto. He shut some of them up in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, when the Leafs made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. For the past 20 games, he’s seemed utterly lost. He wandered away from his post — out by the blue line — on the Jets’ first goal.

Everybody makes mistakes. But, post-game, when it came time to address the fans through the media and assess what had happened, Phaneuf had a very different take on the game than most observers did.

“I don’t think we were outworked,” said Phaneuf.

Really? A team that took six offensive zone faceoffs and was outshot 39-15 at even strength worked just as hard the other team? A team that could barely gain offensive zone time with the extra man worked just as hard as the other team?

Either Phaneuf was just trying to put a good spin on a bad performance, or he truly believes the Leafs were just as good as the Jets. Either way, his answer is a disservice to Leafs fans. The legion of voices calling for the team to cut bait with the captain will grow.

Then take the scoring leader, Phil Kessel. Now Kessel is a bit of an odd bird when it comes to the media, but this was truly strange. Kessel, you should know, does not like talking to the media, especially if the topic is him. He and the media have come to that understanding.

But on Saturday night, the Leafs at their bleakest moment, Kessel emerged from the backroom — voluntarily, it should be pointed out — to talk about the situation. The media jumped away from James Reimer, mid-sentence almost, to get in on this rare Kessel-in-front-of-microphones sighting. He answered five questions, two of them with “no comment” responses. This was Kessel’s idea, remember.

To his credit, he came out. To his detraction, he didn’t say anything. It’s kind of like the way he backchecks: He’s there, he’s just not very effective at it.

Kessel’s own-zone play is exactly not what any team wants out of its best forward.

Then there’s Nazem Kadri, who sometimes makes you wonder and sometimes just blunders. He scored his 20th, an easy tip-in with the Jets goalie behind his own net, essentially passing the puck to the Leaf centre. Kadri fist-pumped like it was the greatest goal he ever scored. Maybe the greatest goal ever scored.

Some might applaud his youthful exuberance. More are waiting for him to grow up, start taking responsibility, start showing some smarts. He rarely gets the puck deep. He’d rather fool around with the puck at the blue line (risking the inevitable giveaway) to try to get a remote scoring chance than simply chip it forward to a winger, or to the corner and get some offensive zone time.

Certainly Ron Wilson tried to get Kadri to change. Certainly Randy Carlyle is trying to get him to change. Two veteran coaches can’t get through to him. Is that the coaches’ fault?

And where have you gone, David Clarkson? He was supposed to be a veteran leader who could help teach some of the young players to play the right way. His voice was supposed to be a loud, firm one in the locker room and his play an example to others. Now Carlyle barely trusts him. Whatever smarts Clarkson picked up in New Jersey, where he was a force of nature, stayed in New Jersey.

Now the Leafs face the uphill battle of their lives. If they run the table in their remaining three games they can get to 90 points.

On the wrong side of the tiebreak, the 10th-place Leafs have to hope eighth-place Columbus (with 87 points and four games remaining) and ninth-place New Jersey (with 84 points and four games remaining) only get to 89.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com